NEW YORK — It is a on condition that a lot of the protection and a spotlight dedicated to Venus Williams’ return to the US Open, the place play begins Sunday, has targeted — and can focus — on how outdated she is. The American is, in any case, 45, an age at which nobody has competed in singles in New York since 1981 (when Renée Richards set the document at 47 years outdated).
That, in and of itself, is noteworthy.
And but there’s loads extra that’s vital about her first look at a Grand Slam event in two full years, no matter how Williams performs in Arthur Ashe Stadium on Monday night time when meets Karolina Muchova, the 2023 French Open runner-up and a two-time semifinalist in New York.
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“I need to be my greatest, and that is the expectation I’ve for myself: to get the very best out of me. And that is all any participant can ask for,” Williams mentioned Saturday. “I have not performed as a lot as the opposite gamers, so it is a completely different problem while you’re coping with that. So I am simply making an attempt to have enjoyable, keep relaxed and be my private greatest.”
Williams made it again to the tour in July, 16 months after final taking part in an official match anyplace and fewer than a 12 months after she had surgical procedure for uterine fibroids.
Venus Williams is at a Grand Slam event for the primary time in 2 years
“It is simply actually, I might say, inspiring,” mentioned Naomi Osaka, 27, a four-time Grand Slam champion. “My solely factor is: I do not actually like how each headline mentions her age. … Everyone knows how outdated she is. But it surely’s type of extra the broader [significance] — how a lot of a legend she is on this sport.”
Williams and her youthful sister Serena, whose final match as a professional got here at Flushing Meadows in 2022, characterize an indelible chapter within the historical past of tennis, sure, but in addition of sports activities in a higher sense and even American society.
They transcended the mere scores and stats and win-and-loss ledgers, and made all of it about way over that, together with Venus’ well-known stand in favor of equal prize cash for girls at Wimbledon.
“She’s top-of-the-line athletes of all time,” two-time US Open semifinalist Frances Tiafoe mentioned. “Her and her sister, they are not solely nice for the ladies’s sport, not solely nice for girls’s sports activities, however they’re so iconic.”
Venus and Serena Williams are sisters who each reached the highest of tennis
Their story bears repeating: Two siblings had been first taught tennis by their self-taught father and each not solely made it to the skilled tour however each reached No. 1 within the rankings and received an important trophies of their world sport.
“Individuals, I suppose,” Osaka mentioned, “ought to worth them slightly bit extra.”
Osaka grew up watching the Williams sisters, then competed in opposition to them.
So did loads of different ladies, corresponding to Coco Gauff, who first introduced herself to the world by defeating Venus at Wimbledon in 2019. After that match, Gauff — simply 15 on the time — mentioned she thanked Venus “for every little thing she did,” and advised reporters: “I would not be right here if it wasn’t for her.”
Venus was the primary Black lady since Althea Gibson to win Wimbledon. In 2000, Venus grew to become the primary Black lady since Althea Gibson within the Nineteen Fifties to win the championship on the All England Membership.
“She’s had a huge effect. … It is so cool to see a legend nonetheless taking part in, nonetheless doing what she loves,” 2021 US Open runner-up Leylah Fernandez mentioned. “It is not, type of, to show folks mistaken, nevertheless it’s as a result of she actually loves the game — and you may see the child in her. I really like that.”
Certainly, requested why she would hassle taking part in, Williams replied: “Why not?”
Venus Williams owns 23 Grand Slam trophies in singles and doubles
Williams collected 5 singles trophies at Wimbledon and in addition received the US Open in 2000 and 2001. That is apart from 14 Grand Slam titles in ladies’s doubles — all with Serena — and two in combined doubles, an occasion she returned to at Flushing Meadows this week.
For the reason that Williams sisters got here on the scene — Venus made her skilled debut in 1994, when she was 14; Serena, who’s 15 months youthful, would quickly comply with and ended up with 23 main singles titles — they set an instance for teenagers who regarded like them and needed to play tennis.
Final month in Washington, Williams took delight in noticing that there have been three Black ladies competing on the courtroom when she performed — and received, by the way in which — a doubles match throughout the first occasion of her comeback.
“It is wonderful that now African-American women know they’ll play tennis, that that is an possibility, a possibility for them to be on the market, too, on the courtroom, in no matter capability,” she mentioned, “whether or not you get to the professionals, whether or not you play school or whether or not you simply study from the game.”
